Help with photographing zebra (and other animals)

[GenOrnsby]

I'm fortunate, African wildlife is just round the corner for me, but I often feel dissapointed with the pic result, any advice would be much appreciated.

[wulf]

Are you after advice on this image specifically (in which case, some information about the equipment used to take it and the settings would be useful) or more about the general topic of how to photograph these kind of creatures?

Wulf

[GenOrnsby]

Hi all and any advice would do, thx.

[wulf]

Shuffled over to technique (and retitled).

Wulf

[inkista]

Ummm.... avoid the mid-day sun? And try to have the sun at your back if you can? You really want more directional light, and probably a little less of it. So shooting early in the morning, and later in the afternoon will help you get a more friendly light to shoot with. I'm in Southern California where we often have bright white strong sunshine, and going out to shoot in the middle of the day tends to make getting good exposures harder.

You may also want to consider using fill flash to balance out strong sunshine backlighting a subject. Or trying to catch the subject with their face in the light, rather than in shadow.

[GenOrnsby]

Thx for the info and help and all.

[Homebrew]

Heh. General advice on wildlife photography could fill a book. And it has, many times!

A book I found very useful and entertaining is Moose Peterson's Guide to Wildlife Photography. He really teaches the techniques while being neither overly technical nor patronizing. Great for the beginner like me. That said, it's written for northern North American fauna (one example: he likes using a warming filter, which I've found is awesome for both the animals and the plant life here but may not be right for South Africa's lusher greenery and more colorful animals - I don't intend to use it for Floridian birds). There may be a better book for South African wildlife; I'm just not aware of it.